» Tools of the Trade: Paper, Pencils and Erasers

Start at the beginning and you can't go wrong---this is the philosophy I'll be dealing with in this Tools of the Trade section. And so, without further delay, I welcome you to my introduction on pencil.

Pencil is the first step of any drawing--not even professional comic artists go straight to the ink, and so neither should you. The pencil step, step one of every drawing, is the most important--it's the only chance a lot of people have to go back and correct any mistakes (you can always use white ink to cover up inking mistakes, but it gives the picture a messy or ruined feel sometimes, especially if you have to erase a lot).

I know a lot of people who dislike using pencil for many reasons---the lines don't fully erase, the paper gets ruined from constant erasing, you press too hard, the eraser puts a hole in the paper or accidentally bends or crunches it--there are a lot of bad things that can happen in the pencil stages. I will now address those bad things with specific tools and products, and how they can help:

Cardstock

• When online manga artists are generally making their pages, they'll draw them out by hand and tone digitally. Readily available paper is generally used, and as most people will tell you, the most readily available paper in any household is printer paper.
• Printer paper is cheap, easily disposable, transportable and plentiful, but it fades, is easily ruined and destroys darker inks over time. For this reason, I recommend you buy Cardstock.
• Cardstock is almost as common as printer paper--you can but it at Walmart, art stores, computer stores and any place that sells scrapbook supplies.
• Cardstock is the same size as printer paper, is acid free so there's no fading, and is much heavier, and sturdier, so it doesn't bend as easily, and you're less likely to put your pencil through it. It's also smooth, so you can erase more easily and with less damage.

Yellow Pencils

• For many people, yellow number two pencils work great. A lot of people have recommended buying fancy German pencil sets, with all the different graphite types, but if you're only using it for the sketch part, you want to avoid fancy pencils like the plague---they are harder to erase, and some of them are plain useless and a waste of money.

Col-Erase Pencils

• A lot of animators use these pencils--you can get non-photo blue, which you will never have to erase after you ink--non photo blue will not show up on film, in photocopiers or in scanners.
• They are also easily erasable, and are good if you like to separate foreground from background, or different elements in your picture. They come in many colours, including red, blue, green, purple, yellow, light blue, black, orange, brown and non-photo.
• They can be found at your local art store or college bookshop.

Mechanical Pencils

• If you have heavy-hands, mechanical pencils are for you! Many of you will find that you press too hard with regular pencils, and then no matter how hard you erase, the lines just don't go away. Mechanical pencils are an ideal fix for heavy-hands, because if you press too hard, the lead will snap. If you start using one of these, you will quickly adapt to pressing lighter, and adopt more efficient means of shading, using hatching and crosshatching.
• There are many different sizes of mechanical pencils that take different sizes and types of lead:
• 0.7 graphite is available everywhere--most cheap mech pencils that you can buy at the grocery store or dollar store take 0.7 graphite. The fun part about 0.7 is that most places offer a lot of different colours of 0.7 graphite--from plain graphite to gold to pink to red to sparkly to metallic.
• 0.5 graphite is less common, but can generally be found at Walmart or art stores. Graphite has less variety.
• 0.3 is the smallest type of mech pencil--it takes 0.3 graphite which only comes in regular, with no variety on colour. These are only available at art stores, and are generally used for drafting. They are expensive, up to $10 for a single pencil, and lead breaks easily. Overall, I find these the most useful--this is the type I use, they leave the least behind, and last a long time.

Pink Pearl Erasers

• If you're using col-erase, or to a lesser extent HB pencils, pink erasers are what you MUST use. If you use any other type, it will smudge everywhere.

White Vinyl Erasers

• This will erase anything except col-erase better than any other eraser out there. You can also wash them under the tap to clean them up.

Grey Kneaded Erasers

• I find these to be least useful and most expensive of all erasers--they keep the graphite in them and then smudge the heck out of your drawing whenever you least expect it. Avoid using one of these.

And that is all the advice I have for this issue. The next Tools of the Trade will focus on inking using traditional and digital means.

- Augest

 

* SmackTalk does not officially endorse any particular brand of product mentioned in this article.